[BBC]

There were disturbing breaches of electoral rules in one part of the north, and an election-related death elsewhere, monitoring groups said.

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[The Independent]

The news that the Sri Lankan government has rejected Gordon Brown’s appointment of the former defence secretary Des Browne as special envoy comes as little surprise to anyone who has been following the situation there. The Sri Lankan government has become increasingly paranoid and defensive about all matters relating to the vicious civil war being waged in the north of the island. For years this conflict continued with very little outside involvement and the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) were able to establish a de facto independent state-within-a-state, with their capital at Kilinochchi. A year ago, the Sri Lankan government unilaterally withdrew from the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire, and under the leadership of its hawkish President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, embarked on this current campaign which seems to be reaching its climax.

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[BBC]

Medical staff in Sri Lanka say at least 18 civilians have been killed as the military continues its offensive on the northern bases of Tamil Tiger rebels. Hospital officials said the number killed in fighting around Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu could be much higher. The military said Mullaitivu - the last major rebel stronghold - was now surrounded, but it denied rebel claims that civilians came under attack. A military spokesman told the BBC that the allegation was propaganda.

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[ BBC ]

The last remaining strip of rebel-held land on the northern Jaffna peninsula is now in government hands, the Sri Lankan administration says. Correspondents say that taking full control after nine years is another strategic victory for the government. The capture follows the recent fall of the town of Kilinochchi and the strategically important Elephant Pass. Separately, the president has pledged to protect press freedom in the wake of a high-profile journalist’s killing.

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[IRIN]

The Sri Lankan government is under intense local and international pressure to halt attacks against journalists and media organisations after a newspaper editor was killed and a private television station attacked by unidentified armed gangs. The incidents came as the military announced making significant headway in its battle against Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatists in the north and northeast of the island. Ground troops took control of the rebels’ main headquarters in Kilinochchi on 2 January and shortly after, a key access route to the northern Jaffna peninsula, Elephant Pass. An offensive to capture the northeastern Mullaitivu District is under way.

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[BBC]

Heavy fighting is reported around the sole remaining Tamil Tiger stronghold of Mullaitivu in Sri Lanka as the army presses ahead with its offensive. The defence ministry said troops had captured one “administration base” with jets bombing jungle hideouts. Rebel sources have not commented on the claim, but say civilians have been wounded by artillery fire. The army is pressing ahead after capturing the rebel HQ of Kilinochchi and the strategic Elephant Pass.

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[ BBC ]

The Sri Lankan army has captured Elephant Pass, the strategic causeway linking the Jaffna peninsula with the mainland, the president has said. Mahinda Rajapaksa said Tamil Tiger rebels had been completely dislodged. The Tigers have made no comment yet. Troops took Kilinochchi, the HQ of the rebels, last week and began a pincer movement on Elephant Pass. The Tigers have been fighting for a separate homeland for 25 years and have held the pass since 2000.

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[BBC]
The murder of Sri Lankan newspaper editor Lasantha Wickramatunga highlights the claim often made by human rights groups that the country is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists to operate. He is the latest in a long line of Sri Lankan journalists who have been murdered or silenced over the past two decades. Many of the victims have not met their fate in the country’s war zone, because for much of the past 20 years independent journalists have been banned from reporting from the conflict areas.

“…Few reporters would dare write what he did in his most recent editorial - in which he referred to the president’s “bloodthirsty euphoria” following the fall of the Tamil Tiger-held town of Kilinochchi last week.

‘Should we fail meaningfully to address the aspirations of the Tamil people that survive this holocaust, we can be sure as night follows day that history will repeat itself… and all the bloodshed and all the sacrifice made to bring the war to a conclusion will have been in vain,’ he said…”

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[ AFP ]

Japan, Sri Lanka’s top donor, was cautious on Monday after the Tamil Tiger rebels’ capital fell, with an official saying that only a political solution could resolve the island’s ethnic war. Sri Lanka’s army last week captured the de facto rebel capital Kilinochchi and said it was now closing in on the headquarters of the Tigers, who have been fighting since 1972 to set up an independent homeland for the Tamil minority. Japan provides nearly two-thirds of Sri Lanka’s international aid and has sent its special envoy four times in the past three years to try to broker an end to the conflict, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

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[BBC]

In Kilinochchi there was hardly a building with a roof. Shops were in ruins or pockmarked with bullets, a huge water tower was lying on its side. The Peace Secretariat, where the Tigers met visiting diplomats and journalists during the failed 2002 ceasefire, was a shell. The windows and furniture had gone, the paving stones in the car park had been torn up. A commando armed with rocket-propelled grenades guarded the gate. Nobody is talking peace now. Kilinochchi was a potent symbol of the Tigers’ separatist aspirations. There they had established the trappings of the state for the Tamil minority for which they have fought for a generation.

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